Donghwasa and a Wild Goose Chase

Last weekend was pretty low key. I contracted a lovely case of the common cold, which has allowed me to suffer nearly all of its possible symptoms (sore throat, congestion, headache, runny nose, post-nasal drip, loss of voice, and cough). This one's a champ for sure. I also cut my forehead on the ceiling of the bus...I was stepping up to one of the seats in the back, and at that very moment the bus lurched forward, causing me to bash my head on the ceiling. Other than these instances of slight misfortune, it was a decent weekend. Ted, Hee Jung, and I went to Donghwasa Temple in the Palgonsan Natural Park. It's essentially just a huge temple campus. Pretty neat to see though.

And we took a cable car ride to one of the mountain peaks. It's pretty scenic, even on a hazy day. We also ate lunch near the mountain. I had duck for the first time. Not bad, actually.
Sunday Ted and I went searching for some shrine that Ted found in a Daegu tourist guide book. I didn't really have any sort of invested interest in said shrine; it was more of an excuse to get out of the apartment. Long story short, we couldn't find the darn shrine because it's not very popular, the map sucked, and no one knew where it was. So we went for a walk in the woods instead. Purely by happenstance, we chose to exit the woods a different way than we entered because the trail appeared to head in the direction of the road we needed to get back to. And lo and behold, what should appear before us but the one and only shrine we had given up looking for. It was tiny, run down, unimpressive, locked, and surrounded by a rather impoverished looking little community. Thus, I took no photos. But at least we found it, and Ted was able to check it off his list. The Daegu guidebook has served us well in the past; I was rather surprised they saw fit to include this shrine as one of the tourist attractions worthy of a visit. Oh well.
Sunday evening, our Korean friend Jake took us out to his favorite restaurant on the mountain. It was pretty cool...each dining party gets their own private little hut, and when you're ready to order you just pick up the phone in the hut and place your order. Someone from the main house comes and delivers your food to you. It's pretty neat. Ok, that's all for now. I'll write again soon.